Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1877 — A Family Journal. [ARTICLE]

A Family Journal.

In a' certain farm-house twenty years ago a great blank book was kept, and labeled Borne Journal. Every night some one made an entry in it Father sat down the'sale of the calves, or mother the cut of die baby’s eyetooth; or, perhaps, Jenny wrote a full account of the sleighing party last night; or Bob the proceedings of the Phi Beta Club; or Tom scrawled, “tried my new gun. Bully-. Shot into the fence and hit Johnson’s old cat” On toward the middle of the book there was the entry or Jenny’s marriage, and one of the younger girls had added a description of the bridesmaids’ dresses, and long afterward there was written, “ this day father died,” in Bob’s trembling hand. There was a blank of many months after thst. But nothing could have served better to bind that family of headstrong boys and girls together than the keeping of this book. They come back to the old homestead now, men and women with griszlad hair, to see their mother who is still living, and turn over its pages reverently with many a hearty laugh, or tears coming into their eyei. Ills their childhood come back again in visible shape.—Scribner’* Monthly.

! The reduction of tbo public debt far the mouth of May wee nearly The recovery of Senator Ferry, of Michigan, who he* been lying at Grand Hevon, is no longer a matter of doubt, bm la fully assured by recent advices. Luther Benson, the temperance lecturer, is said to have fallen from grace. Alas, for man’s frailtyl This gentleman is in the vigor of manhood and possesses the ability to become a bright and shining light among his fellow men if he would just discard the accursed bowl. Hon. Marvin 11. Bovee, the gentleman who dispensed democratic gospel from the portico of the Austin House, one evening last fall, and whose nefarious swindling operations have been alluded to in these columns several limes, has come to the surface again at Rockfard, Illinois, where he is said tube sponging his living off of relatives.

The telegraph announces a fiftyfive hours engagement between the Turks and Montenegrins near a place called Kristaz. The fighting was carried on at close quarters, and waa most desperate, resulting In the defeat of the Montenegrins and their withdrawal to Banjani. The losses on both sides were heavy, reaching into the thousands. In another engagement in the Kalasohin district the Montenegrins were routed. The Lowell Star office has been removed to Crown Point, and the proprietors, Messrs. Ainsworth & Beebee, have commenced the publication in that place of a paper called the Labs County Star. We have received the first number of the new paper, and are highly pleased with its appearance. It is printed upon a new power press, and botti tie editorial and mechanical department show signs of marked ability. May the publishers meet with the success their enterprise and ability so much deserves, and may the Star continue to twinkle and make weekly visits to our table as long as time shall last, are the best wishes of The Union. The “Crown Point Catmas' 1 is the caption which adorns the first page of a new paper just flung to the breeze at Crown Point. It is a fix column folio in size aud is edited by John Millikan. It is republican in politics and is a very able advocate of republican principles. The editor is a good writer, wild,’if we are judge from the first issue of hie paper, he is going to make it hot for the democracy in Lake county. The local page is jam full of sparkling local items, and every department bears evidence of marked ability. The Union takes pleasure in commending the new paper to the people of Lake comity and bespeaks for it a liberal patronage, May it live ns long as the principles it advocates and may it meet with abundantsuo•cess pecuniarily.

Scarcely has the country recovered from the terrible shock occasioned by the Mt. Cartuel calamity when there is flashed across the wires news of another one similar to, and almost as appalling in its results, as the one above mentioned. At Bridgfejwrt, Connecticut, on the idght ut thci J.h instant, a fire broke out in ad extensive bat factory ttud before asaistnaee arrived the flauies got under such headway as to render it utterly impossible to save the building. Attention was then directed toward saving the contents, and while men were thus engaged, before the building was li»!f burned, the outer walls fell in with a tremendous crash, burying tome twelve or fifteen persons beneath the ruins, only four or five of w hom escaped w ith their lives. The bodies of eleven of the unfortunate victims were recovered, some with their heads, some with arms and some with legs bun’ d entirely off. The scene is described as being the extreme. The joss to property is estimated at $300,- * 1 *